This poem is actual ekphrastic. It describes an existing painting. The poem on itself resembles a painting: it starts and ends with the same line 'In Brueghel's great picture, The Kermess', which creates a kind of frame. The poet tries to express the dance by repetition of 'round' and the lack of punctuation. The dancers dance uninterrupted.
William Carlos Williams’s “The Dance” consists of twelve lines of rhythmic verse written in response to a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569). The painting, “The Kermess,” or “Peasant Dance,” depicts sturdy, well-fed peasants on holiday—dancing, drinking, making music, venting the sexual impulse, and abandoning themselves to the spirit of carnival. Williams’s poem captures the hearty vitality that the painting evokes. Through concrete visual and auditory images and through the strong, measured rhythm, Williams renders the hearty...
William **Carlos Williams** '**The Dance**' (Harper's Magazine)
Finish reading The Dance here and then click the button to hear William Carlos Williams read the poem. –William Carlos Williams, The Dance first published ...
harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90002568- PennSound: William **Carlos Williams**
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This poem is actual ekphrastic. It describes an existing painting. The poem on itself resembles a painting: it starts and ends with the same line 'In Brueghel's great picture, The Kermess', which creates a kind of frame. The poet tries to express the dance by repetition of 'round' and the lack of punctuation. The dancers dance uninterrupted.
The Dance | The Dance
At a glance:
The Poem
William Carlos Williams’s “The Dance” consists of twelve lines of rhythmic verse written in response to a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569). The painting, “The Kermess,” or “Peasant Dance,” depicts sturdy, well-fed peasants on holiday—dancing, drinking, making music, venting the sexual impulse, and abandoning themselves to the spirit of carnival. Williams’s poem captures the hearty vitality that the painting evokes. Through concrete visual and auditory images and through the strong, measured rhythm, Williams renders the hearty...